Lack of coordination: Too many departments spoil the project

Construction work at Nazimabad underpass waiting for the Sindh govt’s approval

KARACHI:

A lack of coordination and bureaucratic red tape has brought work on the Nazimabad underpass at Golimar Chowrangi to a complete halt. The blame is being placed squarely on the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, a project that is still on paper.

Initially, a flyover was to be constructed at Golimar Chowrangi. At the eleventh hour, however, all the drawings were changed and the flyover was converted into an underpass to facilitate the Green Line BRT that is also supposed to pass through Golimar Chowrangi.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's (KMC) project director for the underpass, Shafiqur Rehman, told The Express Tribune that because of the Green Line, which is being funded and constructed by the federal government, the KMC had to change the nature of their project. He said that work on the site was kicked off in April and around 40 per cent has been completed.

Read: Waste of resources: KMC bans unauthorised road digging

Meanwhile, the change in the nature of the project has brought down the construction cost from Rs353 million to Rs345 million. The modified PC 1 for the project has yet to be approved by the Sindh government, after which the funds will be released. When the construction work started in April, the Sindh government had released one installment of the funds with which the KMC officials were able to complete 40 per cent work on the project even though its nature was changed mid-way. Now, they are awaiting the rest of the funds to complete the project.

"It will take us hardly 60 to 75 days to finish the job, but we need funds," he said, adding that when the flyover was changed to an underpass, some items were deleted and some others were added, due to which a new approval was needed from the Sindh government.

The KMC's chief engineer for the project, Asadullah Shah, explained that they had to redesign the project on the government's direction. This, according to him, took two to three months.  "Had we constructed the flyover, it would have obstructed the elevated structure that is supposed to be built for the Green Line," he reasoned.

However, when asked why there wasn't any coordination before the construction was started, he replied that there were three to four different projects synchronised at the same point. He said that digging for Karachi Water and Sewerage Board's (KWSB) sewage lines was also started at Golimar, which also had to be stopped as those lines were clashing with the alignment of the Green Line's elevated structure.

For his part, the KWSB's Liaquatabad Town's executive engineer, Zafar Malik, confirmed that they were installing 20-foot-deep underground sewage lines. "But then all of a sudden, the Green Line came in the way and we had to stop the work," he said, adding that the sewerage lines were seven feet away from the Green Line flyover's alignment but they needed to be at a distance of at least 15 feet. The matter has been resolved now, but the two-kilometre stretch of Nawab Siddiq Ali Khan Road dug up by the KWSB to lay down the drainage line, has only been filled with mud.

In all this, the city's largest sanitary and hardware market, which is located on the same road, has suffered most. Gulbahar Traders Association's former president, Muhammad Amin, told The Express Tribune that their business had completely collapsed due to all the construction work.

"Earlier when the road was dug up, no vehicle could ply on it," he said. "Now that they have covered the road, they have left it unrepaired due to which traffic is always clogged here." He said that no official had taken them into confidence before the construction work started and they had no idea why the KWSB had left the work incomplete.

When the project director of Green Line BRT, Tahir Soomro, was asked about the lack of coordination between the various government departments, he said that the alignment of the Green Line was planned in 2011 and the KMC was very much a part of the planning and design of the Green Line.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2015.